Couchbase Raises Another $25 Million in Funding

With developers more or less forcing the issue all kinds of new data models are finding their way into the enterprise. One of the more popular ones are a form of NoSQL database technology based on a Key/Value store architecture. As a leading proponent of such an architecture Couchbase has already seen a 400 percent growth in sales this year, which accounts for why it was able to announce today that it has picked up another $25 million in financing.

According to Couchbase CEO Bob Wierderhold much of the sales growth is being fueled by Couchbase 2.0, which added document database functionality to the company’s core NoSQL database.

As an alternative to relational databases, document databases have been gaining traction with developers because they provide a significantly less complex programming environment that allows developers to create applications using a much less rigid on top of an inexpensive platform.

Wiederhold says that while Javascript Object Notation (JSON) is clearly emerging as standard for building applications on top of certain classes of NoSQL databases, the entire category would could still benefit substantially if all the vendors involved could come to an agreement on a standard query language. Wiederhold says Couchbase has not been able to generate any substantial support for that idea, but the company says the need for one is clearly evident.

Database administrators (DBAs) have traditionally resisted all forms of NoSQL databases because it adds another level of complexity to the enterprise that needs to be managed. But as more developers continue to build applications on document databases especially, resistance to new types of database formats in the enterprise is starting to increasingly fall.

Of course, each of those new applications in turn needs to be integrated with other applications via any number of APIs. But by making simpler to develop applications in the first place, the number of applications in the enterprise that make use of APIs rather than more complex middleware based on traditional service-oriented architecture (SOA) architectures should steadily increase.

That may be cold comfort to the average DBA, but from a productivity perspective it means that the number of applications that can be created per developer should also be about to significantly expand. Whether these application represent net new functionality or simply alternative ways to build applications that might previously have been accomplished using a relational database or even something like Lotus Notes is a matter of debate. What is for certain is that as more developers become proficient with document databases a wave of these applications will be coming soon to an enterprise near you.